Suitable for: 14 years +
Genre: Art Appreciation
The Dongyi Art Museum in Shanghai exhibits the collection of the Italian Carrara Academy from the Renaissance to the 19th century, including a painting by Raphael who completed his work "Portrait of San Sebastian "San Sebastian" completed around the age of 19. St. Sebastian, a Catholic saint, was killed by the Roman Emperor Diocletian during the Christian persecution in the third century and was revered as the patron saint and plague bearer. In literary and artistic works, he is often depicted as a figure tied up and shot through with random arrows. But raphael's painting, seeing a kind of calm: St. Sebastian thoughtfully looks at the part below the eyes of the outsider, without the oppressive feeling of looking directly, but also making you feel unavoidable.
Paolo Franzese, the author of The Beauty of Order: An Appreciation of Raphael's Works, is an Italian artist who was a former teacher at the Art Academy of Carrara, Italy, who is familiar with art history and has edited several works of art. This book is mainly an introduction to Raphael's life and major works.
Through the timeline of Raphael's life from infancy to adulthood, the book analyzes the direction of his style. In the introduction of the main works, not only the content and background of the works are explained, but also some anecdotes of the artists examined by the author are added. While marveling at the artist's exquisite craftsmanship, you also learn about the human side of others. Raphael's works are mostly based on the theme of the Virgin, the image of the Virgin is idyllic and feminine, gentle and powerful, so that the viewer is very eager for her embrace, her love, just like the dependence on the mother. Raphael's paintings have a balance, harmony, or an order, and all the elements are embodied naturally, and this beauty is very comfortable, and everyone can easily feel it, just as the holy light is universal to everyone's heart.
Sistine Madonna
Raphael was not only a prominent artist at the time, but also regarded as a saint (Jesus reincarnation), because he and Jesus had a lot of similarities, they were born and died on Holy Friday, Raphael's appearance was very close to the mainstream portrait of Jesus at that time. Coupled with Raphael's genius-like artistic ability, it is also very normal to be revered as a god. Unfortunately, Raphael died young, and died of a sudden high fever at the age of 37, of course, the author also wrote that he examined the possible cause of Raphael's death - excessive love life.
self-portrait
Whether Raphael was a reincarnated saint or an erotic mortal, the works of art he left behind were exemplars of "classicism", and he himself was revered as one of the "Three Masters of the Post-Renaissance" (Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael, respectively).